I haven't submitted an article in a few weeks. I'm still alive. Family members sometimes check on me to be sure. I didn't want to submit an article for each and every thing that I do. Hal kinda frowns on that. [Editor's Note: I do?] But, I guess I will catch you up on things.

Summer is nearly 2/3rds over and I only received one taker on my Island of Misfit Noise offer. Oh, well. I'm currently mixing two IOMN tracks (one for EC #5 compilation). I have some older submitted material to pad out the album. Not sure how any of it is going to fit into the movie. It may end up just being the length of a music video. I'm aiming to finish in September, at least, to meet the October deadline for the Planet 9 Film Festival. I haven't shot any footage yet because I have no budget for props or anything. Beyond a one page outline, there isn't any script either (not that it is totally necessary in this case).

I have finally published the first two issues of my epically delayed cassette-zine Theee Urban SpaceCat. The printing company is sending me some at a discount because of my honesty when they messed up on my bill. I kinda rushed putting those together, out of desperation to get SOMETHING finished in this lifetime. But, they still have turned out pretty good. A lot of the material is admittedly kind of old. I wanted to get the stuff out there before I discarded it, as I often do.

I released two noisy Mike Damn Nobody tapes in the past two months, Buy Bull State and Nothing Will Change. They are both challenging listening, if you like that. My attempts to maintain a regular schedule seem to be improving. The daily combination of clinical depression and anxiety is crippling, sometimes. Having some sort of routine, without thinking about it, is the only way I get anything done. After several months of neglect, my laundry and apartment are finally clean again! Two of my paintings are half-finished. I want to get those done this week. I like showing them in my vlogs while I update followers

I have seen some interesting ads on Craigslist and Bandcamp for people needing a bassist or guitarist. Knowing my luck with performing in groups it probably wouldn't last very long. But, I may at least go check them out and see if they're any good. After I put the clothes away today I will probably answer letters and record some demos. Staying away from the internet is a lot healthier. Just a few hours after dark is plenty enough. Later.

I was trying to think of what would make for one that is relevant here and thought maybe I could see if anybody wants to collaborate on something with me. It has been awhile.

The Island of Misfit Noise is a group that my girlfriend and I started in 1998, ending in 2013. Other musicians came and went over a period of 15 years. We never had a stable lineup lasting longer than a few months. I resurrected it in 2014 as a recording project, swapping sounds online with people all over the place until we had a couple of completed tracks for release.

Later, I wrote a rough draft for a no-budget movie of the same name. So, I combined both together into a multi-media project. The movie is still a work-in-progress. I'm just putting it together as I go along, with assistance from some filmmaker friends.

If anybody wants to be involved, I would be happy to share ideas with you and do this together. Let me know via email or snail mail.

You can edit my demo anyway you want, to get started, adding anything you like.I might layer more onto it, remix it, mangle it. If you send me a recording I will do the same. We can go back-and-forth with it for awhile until it is completed. Any artwork or text contributed is appreciated as well.

Preferably, I would like to be done with this by the end of June. If there is enough time left, I may use some it in the movie, some music videos, or both. Depending on how far we make progress, I might release what we've got by this Fall (maybe sooner). I have been invited to submit something to a film festival in October, which takes place in Los Angeles, Chicago, and Detroit.

CDs, Cassettes, and DVDs are handmade by me.

The album is being made under a Creative Commons license.I have zero budget for manufacturing or promotion.If someone wants to distribute it, great!I suck at that.

Writing about......writing.Participation trophies for everybody.Here, have a cookie.Spill your guts and bleed for me.Dance, little monkey.Public isolation, I'm dying up here.Sort the pieces.Stir the solutions.Use all of the glue.Burn the bridges.Improvise.Comedy vomit stuck in your throat.Entertainment.

I was planning to release this in February. But, I finished mixing it ahead of schedule. So, I will put it out there now, instead. Isn't that nice?

As usual, this is a mixture of old and new sounds, some recorded by myself, some appropriated. Then, mutilated and mangled into something different.

Hal likes reading more details about my work. I'm ambivalent about always knowing how the sausage is made. But, I guess that will include some tidbits here; To start, there are machine sounds, including a washing machine with a pair of shoes inside. There are my vocal sounds being stretched and torn apart. There are improvisations from my teenage years on a guitar I built from somebody's garbage. Some old cassette tapes that I've kept in storage FOREVER had radio and TV stuff that I messed around with. By the way, I sometimes dub over my old demos and field recordings when making RecycleTapes for y'all. There were a bunch of leftover outtakes sitting around from my short movie "I Dream of SpaceCat." So, I remixed those into something. One plunderphonics-type track was originally created, on request, a few years ago for a friend's podcast Truth Porn Militia.

Some of this I wasn't sure if I should include it in the next Mike Nobody / Theee Urban SpaceCat cassette-zine or here. But, I have enough of this sort of thing already saved for that. I need to continue fleshing out my existing demos some more and get that thing published already.

Mike Damn Nobody is the pseudonym that I use for my noisier work, including industrial, musique concrète, and noise music (I guess). This is another in my RecycleTape series. I dub them on repurposed cassettes of varying quality. But, they also include unlimited digital downloads with purchase, if you want to listen on your iPod or something.

I compulsively produce music & art regularly. I usually don't know what to do with it all and have given away or discarded a TON of it. There is probably a landfill full of it somewhere, under mountains of used diapers and coffee grounds. I just don't have much storage space. My stubborn obsessive-compulsive perfectionist streak often hinders me from completing a lot of stuff. So, unfortunately, that work is typically the first to go.

Creating noise music (or just noise) has always been a freeing outlet for me. Consisting of random chance, there isn't really a wrong way to do it. It either sounds good or it doesn't. So, it is okay to be totally chaotic. Anything that makes a sound is fair game. Audio recordings don't really do this sort of thing justice, though. There is much more energy in a live environment, where anything could happen. Property damage and bystanders' safety be damned.

Lately, I have been expanding the role of my noise releases, as a way of preserving stuff that otherwise would have gone to waste on the trash heap. Even the music gets recycled here, folks. Some of these recordings are decades old. I don't always remember their origins. I may remix or touch them up a little before releasing them. The ones on 666 are from tapes made in the 1990's and 2000's. It seems like there are a lot of found sounds going on here. One is a Christian music tape that I had recorded over long ago. The original album still bled through, though. One is the Beatles slowed wayyyy down, "Strawberry Fields Forever" and "I Am the Walrus" (I think), then mixed together with some other noises. One sounds like a live show in Detroit somewhere that has been cut-up.

Music & art is another world that I live in, far away from everybody. The spectrum that I'm comfortable with can go from precisely constructed to anarchic destruction. Tapes like these are on the latter end.

Well, I am finally releasing something new again this upcoming week. It isn't a SpaceCat zine, unfortunately. But, I am working on that too. It is noise, not rock music. So, if you aren't into harsh experimental stuff this may not be your kinda thing. The title is "Pornolocaust" by Mike Damn Nobody & Grinding Deviance. It will be available on RecycleTape and digital download formats from my Bandcamp page. Downloads are whatever price you think is fair, even if it is zero. I don't mind. I had to remove one track because it was TOO LOUD to successfully upload. Wow!

​Making noise tapes allows me to use material that I didn't think would work on a typical Mike Nobody release. So, instead of throwing perfectly good, although incomplete, recordings away I can stick them there. This is part of the creative process that I am trying to adhere to. The perfectionist side of my personality needs to go sit in the corner for awhile and let me and my chaotic side work. "Done is better than perfect."

I usually need a push from someone else to get going. But, social anxiety and stressing out about other everyday shit grinds it all to a halt. Having a measurable timeline or schedule helps me to focus, as long as I don't force it or become too negative with myself. I am trying to break my projects down into smaller bits, working on them one-piece-at-a-time instead of taking it all on at once...alone. I've gotta find some internal balance here, somehow.

Mind you, I have tried to maintain a schedule before. I have made plans in the past that just totally fell through. Everyone got pissed at me. It wasn't always my fault. But, NO ONE CARES. They only want results. So, I am keeping those details to myself. You will see my stuff when it is ready.

Anyway, you should be getting more messages from me if I can keep this up, while I'm still on a roll. So, "Haste Ye Back" guys!

Heartman, starring David as the superhero who, along with his sidekick Chip, must save the universe from his evil nemesis Dr. Pain. Every one of the 46 glossy, full-color pages of Heartman was illustrated by a different artist (including David himself), giving the surreal storyline a fittingly unpredictable and exciting look. Each copy is SIGNED by David himself and includes a pinup poster of David’s Heartman canvas painting. $12. Sold by David, himself, on his website.

For his first post here in Electronic Cottage I am going to show you 13 designs that Mike sent to me for possible use as EC logos, banners, etc. Please tell me and Mike which ones you like best, and tell us why, if you want to.Please note that all of you are welcome to submit designs and artwork for EC.EC is a site that will be constantly changing and evolving.Mike's designs, and your designs, could be used by us, now or in the future, in various ways and places on the site.- Hal McGee, EC Editor.

Electronic Cottage Rounded Square Red - and with various FONTS

Electronic Cottage Logo 1

Electronic Cottage Logo 2

Electronic Cottage Logo 3

Electronic Cottage Logo 4

Electronic Cottage Logo 5

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Electronic Cottage Logo 9

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Electronic Cottage Logo 11

Electronic Cottage Logo 12

After reading Carl's comments about which ones he liked best, Mike worked up three more logos, which I will post here below.Additionally, in the spirit of collaboration, William Davison took one of Mike's logos and altered it, also below.

Mike Nobody

Turning Junk Into Punk Since 1985

Mike Nobodyis an American multi-instrumentalist, singer, composer, visual artist, and creator of experimental​custom-made instruments. Diagnosed with major depression and social anxiety disorders, he is regarded as an outsider artist–musician by his contemporaries in the fine art and alternative music scenes. Known for his highly eclectic style and diverse projects, his sound incorporates a variety of music genres, both popular and experimental, with a predominantly Lo-Fi aesthetic. Much of his work consists of ultra-limited, handmade cassettes recorded alone in his home, with whatever means that were available at the time.

His visual work consists primarily of “stream of consciousness” drawings and mixed media paintings​made from repurposed materials, with occasional ventures into film & video.

Creating in near anonymity since the 1980’s, most exposure to his work has been primarily in the form of mail art packages, ad-hoc self-distribution, and a few local retail outlets. He gained some notoriety in the Metro Detroit area, beginning in the 1990’s, and has collaborated with numerous musicians across the sonic spectrum. Whether people were listening or not, however, Mike continued to compulsively produce music and art pieces. Exponential growth of the internet in the intervening years has given Mike new opportunities to reach an audience, unavailable to him before.

​The Electronic Cottage website is primarily an online magazine for the publication of lengthy and in-depth articles, essays, and interviews.For those of you who use Facebook I have created an Electronic Cottage Group, which is a casual social gathering place of the EC Community, where EC people can meet, share artwork and news of current projects and releases.The website and this EC Facebook Group are two separate but connected entities of the greater EC Community.